Comic Suzanne Westenhoefer has a request: retweet that she is playing locally. (Handout)

How has the world changed for gay and lesbian comics since Ellen DeGeneres came out 20 years ago?

"I think it just got a little bit better," said comic Suzanne Westenhoever. "It became a little more where a comic might be in Oklahoma City in a comedy club can be out. That's definitely change. I'm not sure we can completely credit Ellen. That was starting to happen. She was the big, loud awesome boom. That was very helpful."

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Westenhoever earns praise, too, for her contributions as an openly lesbian comic.

"I get a lot of thank-yous from younger comics when I do clubs here in Los Angeles if I do gay night, their gay pride," she said. "It makes me feel so good. It's so wonderful."

Although her act is mostly personal, Westenhoever works in some jokes about President Donald Trump. She's no fan.

"I do have some personal jokes about stuff that happened to me that was horrible and funny because Trump is president," she said. "Comics, in general, we're looking at the world. We're news addicts. Even if we're not political, it's going to creep in."

Trump supplies a lot of material, she added. "If you aren't Stephen Colbert and doing it every night, it's hard to keep up," she said. "When you watch John Oliver, who I love, or Samantha Bee, some of the things they're talking about is old news."

Trump, she said, is "like gold. It's like jokes are falling from the sky."

She has a request of gay fans: Spread the word she is appearing locally.

"Now everything is social media," she said. "One of the problems for all of us, we can't get our friends and fans to retweet or share. You put that you're going to be in Orlando, I get 60 likes. That doesn't do anything. I need 60 retweets. … It's hard for us to get the word out. Tell people to retweet even if you think you have only six followers. That's the whole way it works."